School plays, concerts pack fall calendar

Socastee High School students rehearse a scene from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” a South Strand Helping Hand fundraiser show for 7 p.m. Oct. 28. From left: Lexi Cody, Harley Gilmore, Deegan Hudson and Sarah Causey.
Courtesy photo

Performing plays and concerts also provides a way to help other people in the community.

Students, teachers and families at North Myrtle Beach and Socastee high schools have blended an extra good deed with their show dates this month. Other schools and youth ensembles also have a busy season into winter, with a slew of productions for the community.

Upon hearing that Conway High School was dropping out of the Oct. 15 Horry County All County Theatre Festival because of the flood that displaced students and others, Lindsay Link, the performing arts director at North Myrtle Beach High, thought of an encore to encourage the north Strand community to make a difference.

“My kids were concerned about it,” Link said about discussing the topic of affected Conway High students’ plight. “It was they who brought it up.”

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So, the second part of the North Myrtle Beach High’s annual “Fall Performance Arts Showcase” will be repeated in a benefit show for flood relief.

The formal showcase is is 6-9 p.m. Oct. 29 with the school’s Advanced Show Choir doing popular selections such as “Lights” by Ellie Goulding and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, and Mixed Chorus joining for a salute to veterans and to Motown.

After that first hour, the drama department will perform two one-act plays: “Sea Change,” the school’s competition piece, which deals with main character, Shoshanna, putting her life back together after Hurricane Sandy through rhythmic poetry, and “21 Guaranteed Ways To Get Detention,” with a cast of misbehaving students with whom the assistant principals cope.

The school then will reprise both plays for a benefit showcase, 3-5 p.m. Nov. 1, to help flood victims in Horry County.

Link noted the irony of “Sea Change” selection chosen earlier this year, but realized a way to turn something positive out of any possible down feelings the plot covers, with its story of recovery and rebounding.

“We picked that way before we knew what was in store for South Carolina,” she said, referring to the record rainfall from Oct. 3-5, and giving “Sea Change” an impromptu innovative role as a charitable outreach. “We wanted to go about it the right way.”

Booking the benefit for Nov. 1, Link said “we’re working around football and Halloween.”

“Also,” she said, “Nov. 1 is my birthday, so my birthday present is helping raise money for this charity work, which is good.”

Link said auditions for “Sea Change” and 21 Guaranteed Way to Get Detention” – which also will be performed for state competitions in November at Furman University in Greenville – took place in early September.

In this, her fourth year of heading the choral, music theater and drama productions at North Myrtle Beach High, Link called the sequence “a building process” and that “my freshman babies are now seniors.”

The school already has spring in mind, too, with a musical, “Back to the ’80s,” in place, Link said, noting its similarities to the “Grease” story line, but with 1980s-era hits by such artists as Cyndi Lauper and the late Michael Jackson.

“They’re songs that everybody knows and loves,” Link said.

Giving back, at Socastee High

The spirit to help also got its own act across Socastee High School, where a 45-minute, abridged version of Shakespeare’s “AsYou Like It” will grace its auditorium stage at 7 p.m. Oct. 28. This play, also up for county and state competitions, serves to help South Strand Helping Hand, a Surfside Beach-based charity that assists local families in need.

Everyone attending the show next Oct. 28 is asked to bring a canned food item when they make a suggested donation of at least $5 for a ticket. All those goods collected will augment a 28-day school effort begun Oct. 1 with special needs students to collect 2,000 cans for South Strand Helping Hand.

Kristin Lundberg, just starting her first year coordinating drama arts at the school, said having met with personnel from the charity more than a month ago, she called its work “incredible.” Then, planning this October canned food drive, and making this part of the run-up to the Bard performance, Lundberg said she’s intent on “making sure the kids know how important it is to give back.”

“We’re just really excited to be part of helping the community in such a larger way,” she said, also looking forward to later joining several students in “trick-or-treating for canned goods.”

Lauding South Strand Helping Hand crews, Lundberg said how “they utilize their resources” impresses her because “anything they can’t use, or if they have too much of” something, they pass along the items to other local places that are in short stock in assisting the needy. That importance is magnified this month amid the flooding disaster, she said.

Lundberg said Socastee High thespians are having a “great time” readying this “super-duper abridged” version of “As You Like It” to launch “our fall theater season.” This production also marks the school’s first entry state competition in years, she said, so next month in Greenville, “the kids will have a chance to do the show a few times.”

▪ “Synergy 1,” by St. James High School Drama Department with Murrells Inlet Community Theatre (www.mictheatre.com), 2 p.m. Oct. 25 at Murrells Inlet Community Center, 4450 Murrells Inlet Road, beside Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church, and south of Bellamy Avenue and the Murrells Inlet U.S. Post Office. Free, with reservations, leave message at 843-651-4152 or email contact@mictheatre.com.

ALSO: Theater students continue collecting canned foods during Halloween activities as well as teaming up with special needs students in a 28-day challenge to collect 2,000 canned items for South Strand Helping Hand.